Snippet Sunday - Marked

Here's another little snippet from my current WIP.

Aislinn watched her cousins work and wondered again who her parents had been that she was so different from them. Catriona, Osheen, and Daragh were all fair haired with gray eyes and rosy skin. Aislinn was dark skinned and dark haired with bright blue eyes. Daragh was the only one shorter than her, and he was only eight. He’d hit a growth spurt soon enough.

Aislinn often dreamed of things she couldn’t explain. Who were the people she saw so clearly in her sleeping mind, yet the only features she could recall was the woman’s dark skin and the man’s blue eyes? The colors, the smells, the sounds that surrounded her were nothing like what existed in her world. She had no names for some of the things. Others she knew only the truly wealthy could afford. She’d once told her aunt about the dreams. Her aunt had told her not to speak of such foolishness. The fear in her eyes convinced Aislinn to keep silent about her dreams from that day on.

The ache in her leg subsided so she made her way back to the house. “All finished in the fields?” Ena asked.

“I planted the last of the vegetable plots,” Aislinn said as she washed up. “Uncle Fionan told me to come back when I was done.”

“Well, you came in time to help me with the laundry,” Ena said.

Aislinn changed out of her dirt covered clothes and brought them down to be washed with the rest of the laundry. She sat on a stool beside the wash tub and started scrubbing as her aunt hung up the clothes that had already been washed. “Aunt Ena, what were my parents like?”

“Aislinn, you’ve asked me this question how many times now?” Ena asked. “I’ve already told you everything I know about your parents.”

“I’m just wondering how I came from your sister and yet I look so different from you and the others,” Aislinn said.

“Your father was dark skinned like you. You favor him more than your mother,” Ena said. “You know that.”

“Yes, but where did father come from? Do I have any other family besides you? Where did I come from?” Aislinn asked.

Ena turned and looked at her. “Where did this come from?”

“Sheen says I’m not a part of the family,” Aislinn said. “He’s said it before. He’s right. I’m not really a member of this family, am I?”

Ena walked over and stood in front of Aislinn. “Aislinn, you are my precious niece. Your mother was my sister and your father her husband. You are blood of my blood. In spite of what Osheen may think, that makes you as much a part of this family as he is. You have more right to be here than Mairtin and you don’t hear Osheen complaining about him.”